If you don't experiment, you don't learn.

I have a friend who lives in the Carolinas, in an honest to goodness antebellum house. I have never visited, but would love to see what she and her hubby have done. We knew them back when we were all in the Air Farce, stationed in the UK. They were the consummate antique hunters. They had some amazingly beautiful furniture. We still have the piece they found for us. It is a coffer….like a giant foot locker on legs, that they used to store clothes in. It is carved on top and all around the sides and is made of Bog Oak, so is very dark. If I remember correctly, it is about 300 years old. It sits under the main window in our house and I have put a piece of glass on top and all my plants are on it. I love that piece. It has a lot of memories.

Anyway, She also has a blog and she is doing a Spring Challenge. You can read her post and see her pictures here, but this is what she says:
The Challenge
Everyplace has it’s own unique sign that Spring has finally arrived.
I will show you three pictures for examples.
I want you to post a picture, a paragraph, or even a poem, describing your idea of the ultimate sign of spring on your own blog. Then leave a comment on this post with a link to yours.

So that is what I am going to do. Keep in mind that the three pictures I am going to post were all taken on the same day.

These fall off our Silver Maple every spring. I think they protect the leaf buds.

This was taken in the morning.

Is it starting to snow?

This was taken a couple of hours later.

Yes, yes it is.

This was taken around 2 in the afternoon.

These are the two signs at my house that Spring has arrived. Those bud protectors falling off the Silver maple and snow.

Five whole weeks of SNOW! Really now, mistress weather. Let’s be reasonable. I want to plant my garden outside instead of in little expando-pot-like thingies. Both my seedlings and I are tired of this cold…. Well, to be honest, they are still tucked into little pots and sat over the heater, whilst I am out in the cold…working. On a side note, I bought an old Trek Bicycle and am waiting to ride it on dry pavement, not cold ice…so it’s not just seeds I am worried over, it is my ownself too.

My toms are about 7 inches high and I still don’t know which ones are which. The Bell Peppers NEVER came up, so I planted some more today, along with Italian Pole Snap Beans (which we had last summer when we visited Gabe and Erica at the farm they were house-sitting at and which were amazingly delicious). I will plant the technicolor Swiss Chard outside tomorrow…if it doesn’t snow…..and maybe even if it does. I will go look for cucumber seedlings because I forgot to buy cucumber seeds.

We did go to Whole Foods and get the free compost, but they only gave us a limited amount…mainly because it was very heavy and they didn’t want anyone breaking their backs…BUT, we got it and it is still sitting in the container and I haven’t done anything with it because of the SNOW……grrrrr.

I live in zone 5. For the first time I planted the spinach and peas outside before the frost date of May 15. I planted them three weeks ago. Since then we have had three snowstorms, with night-time temps into the teens…..and wind, don’t forget the high winds that have been around. My garlic is still alive. I credit the straw and leaf mulch that engulfs them. I don’t know if my spinach will survive, as I just threw the seeds on top of the mulch, then sprinkled a bit of dirt over the top. I’ve been watching with curiosity. Maybe I should put some more dirt down…maybe they have blown away….I can’t tell.

I started the toms, (Black Plum Cherries, Mortgage Lifter Beefsteak and ground cherry (tomato-like plants)) inside and they are all doing well. The ground cherries are a little slow. I don’t know if this is normal as this is the first time I’ve planted them. I had a scare this weekend. I accidentally spilled the toms all over my kitchen floor. The black plastic pot holder got caught on the sliding glass door and flipped over! All 14 of my toms did a face-plant. All I could see were mounds of dirt. I extracted them from the ruins and re-planted them, except now I have no way of knowing which plants are which as the little name plates got separated from the plants…..I guess I will have to plant all of them. I tell you, it was a scary moment, my heart leapt into my throat…it was almost as bad as seeing one of my kids fall down. I’m happy to report that they survived the fall and are doing well.

I also have leeks growing in my window. I planted parsnips, eggplant and peppers last week and so far nothing has shown. I have had poor luck with parsnips, I love them, but out of the 18 I planted last year, only one grew, so I decided to start them indoors this year. We shall see what happens.

This Saturday, our local Whole Foods is having a “Compost Dump”. A big truck will pull up into the parking lot and dump a bunch of compost there. It will be free. I intend to be there early. I have compost, but I suspect this will be better than mine…..:) I want to use it on top of my lasagna beds that seem to be nothing but straw. That way I will have a base for the seeds.